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Art Museums in the Age of #Metoo Laura Lawson Kistler a Capstone In

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Art Museums in the Age of #Metoo Laura Lawson Kistler a Capstone In Art Museums in the Age of #MeToo Laura Lawson Kistler A Capstone in the Field of Museum Studies for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University Extension School May 2019 Author’s Statement This capstone aims to identify and present strategies that museum professionals may utilize as they navigate the challenges and opportunities that emerge in the wake of the #MeToo movement. It is my hope that museums will be bold and brave as they take on the difficult work that is necessary to correct the many injustices that persist. I am grateful to many people who provided support, guidance, and encouragement: to my reader, Dr. Makeda Best at the Harvard Art Museums, for generously sharing her time and expertise with me; to my professors and classmates in the Museum Studies degree program, for sharing their unique perspectives and ideas; to my classmates in my graduating cohort, for providing much-needed encouragement and humor throughout the process; to my family and friends for their genuine and sustained interest, support, understanding, and patience. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my husband. I am profoundly grateful for his support throughout the entire degree program: his encouragement propelled me, his ideas challenged me to be creative, his enthusiasm kept me excited and engaged, and his confidence in me helped me believe in myself. i Table of Contents Author’s Statement .......................................................................................................................... i Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Definition of Terms..................................................................................................................... 3 Background and Context................................................................................................................. 5 Art Museums and Exhibitions ........................................................................................................ 9 Gauguin: Maker of Myth .......................................................................................................... 14 Museum Ethics.............................................................................................................................. 18 Recommended Strategies for Best Practices ................................................................................. 23 Short-Term Strategies ............................................................................................................... 24 Supplemental Labels in Existing Galleries or Exhibitions ................................................... 24 Supplemental Exhibitions and Related Programming .......................................................... 28 Long-Term Strategies ............................................................................................................... 32 Institutional Self-Assessment for Internal Transformation................................................... 33 Exhibiting and Collecting Work by Women Artists ............................................................. 34 Increasing Gender Diversity on Museum Boards ................................................................. 36 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 37 Scope of Project and Future Research ...................................................................................... 40 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 42 ii Introduction Art museums today face ethical dilemmas on many fronts including fundraising, governance, and collecting and exhibition practices. Artists and activists call for transparency and ethical behavior (Battaglia and Greenberger). Recent reports of sexual harassment in the art world and the broader #MeToo movement are prompting museums to consider the ethical response to both contemporary and historical artists who were accused of sexual misconduct (Pogrebin and Scheussler; Frank). Before the #MeToo movement, museums and much of the art world separated the personal behavior of artists from their artistic output. Now, #MeToo is demanding that museums address the troubling behavior of both living and historical artists. In 2017 and 2018, hundreds of stories came to light in which powerful men were accused of inappropriate sexual behavior (North et al.). Vox reports that 263 public figures have been accused of sexual misconduct (North et al.). Beginning in late 2017 with the highly publicized allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, many people began to share their accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault using “#MeToo” on Twitter (Bennett; Rutenberg et al.). The hashtag spread rapidly on social media and the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment led to a reckoning in many industries, prompting what may be the watershed moment for survivors of sexual harassment (Bennett; Rutenberg et al.). The art world is no stranger to allegations of misconduct. In fact, many artists firmly established in the canon of art history have long been considered persons of questionable moral character, many of whom mistreated women and girls— Benvenuto Cellini, Carravaggio, Egon Schiele, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Gauguin, among others (Farago “Gauguin”; Pogrebin and Schuessler). Unfortunately, little has changed. In autumn of 2017, Knight Landesman, co-owner 1 of the international art magazine Artforum, was accused by nine women of sexual harassment (Battaglia and Greenberger); in late 2017 and early 2018, eight women alleged that the artist Chuck Close harassed them (Pogrebin and Schuessler; Voon and Steinhauer); and in early 2018, a Boston Globe investigation revealed dozens of accusations against renowned photographer and art school professor Nicholas Nixon (Seeyle; Lazar and Gay). For women and others in the art community, these cases are not simply recent developments or anomalies. They are symptoms of the larger, longstanding problems of gender inequality and abuse of power in the art world (Battaglia and Greenberger). Just as abuse of power and gender inequality will continue to be pressing issues across disciplines for years to come, the #MeToo movement will not be short- lived. This is a significant moment for art museums. #MeToo provides an opportunity for museums to think critically about the way they present artwork by problematic artists; to examine their role in perpetuating the problems of sexual harassment, gender inequality, and abuse of power; to reconsider their ethical obligations to the public; and to take actions that lead to meaningful change. This capstone addresses questions about the presentation of work by artists who have been accused of sexual harassment by looking at this topic through the lens of museum ethics. First, it is essential to consider the greater context within which the #MeToo movement falls. Second, an analysis of a past exhibition demonstrates how museums have exhibited the work of a great artist who was also notorious for inappropriate sexual behavior. The analysis of a past exhibition provides evidence that museums have not been entirely ethical in their presentation of these artists and that there is room for change. Third, this capstone explores museums’ ethical obligations, agency in society, and responsibility to communicate truthfully in addressing social and moral issues. Finally, it recommends strategies for practical 2 steps that museums can take in response to artists accused of sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual behavior. Because art museums are public institutions that are valued as highly trusted sources of information, their response to the dialogue and broad consequences prompted by the #MeToo movement will prove to be significant as institutions and organizations across many disciplines are also navigating these issues. Definition of Terms It is crucial to adopt clear and consistent definitions of the terms to be used throughout this paper. Many recent reports have used the terms “sexual misconduct,” “sexual abuse,” “sexual assault,” and “sexual harassment,” among others. In this paper, the term “sexual harassment” will be used as it often applies to situations that occur in a professional setting or workplace and most of the cases addressed here involve situations in which the harasser is the experienced teacher or artist who holds the power and controls the situation, while the harassed is the student or model, vulnerable because they have little or no power. In 1965, the US Congress created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a means of enforcing the Civil Rights act of 1964 (“About EEOC”). The EEOC functions as the federal organization that enforces the laws that make it illegal to discriminate in the workplace (“About EEOC”). The term “sexual harassment” came into use in 1986 when the EEOC recognized it as a form of discrimination, defining it as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature,” as well as offensive or inappropriate remarks about a person’s sex (“Select Task Force”; “Sexual Harassment”). In 2017, following the accusations against Landesman, over eighteen hundred women, trans people, and gender nonconforming artists and arts professionals published
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